Poverty reduction fund process and perspectives towards rural water and sanitation

The PRF is a government initiative delivering development resources directly to the village level. Following the “PRF Process”, villagers choose, plan, implement and manage their own sub-projects. Amongst over 910 villages surveyed, approximately 33% of villagers’ needs were related to water. Most needs were for domestic water. Depending on location of the village etc., systems requested included gravity-fed water supply, drilled and hand dug wells, but assistance was also requested for agricultural water. Generally all assistance given by PRF is for the community; no private/ household hook-ups are allowed. Perhaps because of this and other factors, few needs expressed by the people themselves related to sanitation. In the Lao PDR, sanitation is invariably linked to the availability of water, and is considered a private rather than a public matter. While public resources are important, private resources (especially those based on conservation of rainwater) ought also to be encouraged for better village well-being.